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Last Post 3/18/2008 11:05 AM by  David Alexander
Solar Flares
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3/18/2008 9:44 AM

    Is there any way to predict from Earth when solar flares will happen? Is there any way to stop them? Jordan L. (FWMS)


    David Alexander



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    3/18/2008 11:05 AM

    Hello Jordan, I am afraid the answers are "no" and "no". A lot of work has gone ito trying to find characteristics signatures of a pre-flare soalr atmosphere but with little success. We do know what regions of the Sun are likely to produce a flare and even have some indication of when this might happen but this is a long way short of prediction. Even if you could predict when a flare was going to happen you would also need to predict what its charactersitics will be, i.e. strength, how many energetic particles it will produce and what path those particles would take. Coronal Mass Ejections are more important for geomagnetic effects at the Earth and the same qualification apply. There is a National Space Weather Prediction Center run by the National Weather Service (See attached link) who make forecasts and give out alerts and warnings for satellite users, NASA and others.

    http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

    Cheers - David



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